'If my mum swore, then they'd return the change': Woman says hawker cursed at her mum amid dispute over $5
A Facebook user has put the spotlight over a cai fan stall in Bedok after she alleged that the hawker assistant refused to return change and cursed at her elderly mother.
In a Facebook post shared on Sept 2, Diana Soh said her 76-year-old mother paid for a $5 meal with a $10 note at a 'cai fan' stall at Bedok Interchange Hawker Centre on Aug 25 at 1.30pm.
But the hawker assistant refused to return the change, claiming she had been given a $5 note instead, Soh said.
She described in her post how the hawker yelled at her mother and even asked her to swear that she had given her a $10 note – “if she didn't, my mum (would) be hit by a car and die! If my mum swore, then they will return the change,” wrote Soh.
"They just kept insisting that my mum gave them a $5 note. My mother is not colour blind, and she can definitely differentiate a red $10 note from a green $5 note!"
In the comments, several netizens said the hawker's behaviour was uncalled for. "Why need to curse someone over $5? We will not know (the whole story) unless there is CCTV," one said.
“I didn’t mean to curse”
The hawker assistant denied that she refused to return the change to the elderly diner.
In an interview with Shin Min Daily News on Sept 2, the 45-year-old, surnamed Zhang, said the diner had given her $5 for a plate of one meat and fish.
"I even told her that she had given me the exact amount. But after arguing back and forth for five minutes, I started to get angry," the hawker assistant said.
“I told her, 'If I had taken $10 from you, I'll be ploughed to death by a car’.”
Zhang, however, admitted to raising her voice at the elderly woman.
"I didn't mean to curse the woman. I might have spoken too fast since I was angry and anxious."
Speaking to the Chinese daily, the stall owner, surnamed Cai, said he often reminds his employees to return the customers' change before putting the money into the drawer.
"My employee did not make a mistake since the money that she had received from the elderly woman was always in her hand," he said, adding that his employee did not mean to scold the diner.
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